THIRD ROUND
PROMISE ZONES INITIATIVE
REQUEST FOR COMMENTS
Tribal Stakeholders Webinar
August 12, 2015
Ann M. Bartuska
Deputy Under Secretary
for Research, Education and Economics
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Webcast Agenda
Overview of the Promise Zones Initiative
Third Round Public Comment Period (ends September 28, 2015)
 Draft Third Round Application Guide
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Proposed Lead Applicant Eligibility
Proposed Community Eligibility Criteria
Proposed Selection Criteria
Proposed Required Information
Max Survey Platform
Mapping Tool
Community Development Marketplace
Data and Evaluation
Third Round Public Comment
Projected Third Round Promise Zone Timeline
Resources for Applicants
Agency Partners
• Agriculture
• Housing & Urban Development
• Commerce
• Education
• Health and Human Services
• Justice
• Labor
• Transportation
• Treasury
• Corporation for National & Community Service
• Environmental Protection Agency
• National Endowment for the Arts
• Small Business Administration
PZ Initiative
Goals
Create Jobs
Increase Economic
Activity
Leverage Private
Capital
PZ Community Priorities
Create jobs, employment opportunities
Workforce development
Support Businesses
Promote entrepreneurship
Increase investment
Leverage private capital
Policy Domains Now
Being Tracked
Employment & asset building
Investment & business growth
Improve
Educational
Opportunities
Improve quality of K-12 education
Increase opportunities for post-secondary &
adult education
Expand access to early childhood
education
Reduce Serious
and Violent Crime
Reduce crime
Increase community trust and public safety
Public safety
Increase quality affordable housing access
Expand homeownership
End homelessness
Housing
Education
Expand access to healthcare and healthy
lifestyles
Health
Expand neighborhood amenities
Improve infrastructure, broadband access
Community Infrastructure
Promote Resident participation
Connection to community
Civic engagement
Promise Zone Benefits
Promise Zones is an initiative that uses existing federal resources
 No grant funds come automatically with a designation.
Preferences for some competitive
programs & technical assistance
Opportunity for 5
AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers
Federal Liaison
to help navigate federal resources
Business hiring tax incentives, if enacted
by Congress
Promise Zones Designees
• Choctaw Nation, OK
• Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD
• Kentucky Highlands, KY
• South Carolina Low Country, SC
Minneapolis
Pine Ridge
Indianapolis
Sacramento
Choctaw Nation
Camden
West
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Los Angeles
Hartford
Kentucky
Highlands
San Antonio
Eastside
South Carolina
Low Country
Promise Zone Opportunities in FY 2016
• Department of Agriculture: Community Facilities Grant Program; Community Food Projects Competitive Grants Program;
Farm To School Grants; Farmers Market Promotion Program; Farmers Market SNAP Support Grant; Food Distribution Program
on Indian Reservations Nutrition Education Grant; Housing Preservation Grants; Local Food Promotion Program;
Rural Community Development Initiative; Self-Help Section 523 Technical Assistance Grants; SNAP Process and Technology
Improvement Grants.
• Department of Commerce: Economic Development Assistance Programs.
• Corporation for National and Community Service: AmeriCorps VISTA; Operation AmeriCorps.
• Department of Education: Charter Schools Program Replication & Expansion Grant; Native Youth Community Projects;
Performance Partnership.
• Department of Health and Human Services: Assets for Independence; Community Economic Development Program;
Community Economic Development Program-Healthy Food Financing Initiative Program; Community Services Block Grant; Health
Centers Program; Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program.
• Department of Housing and Urban Development: Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grant; Choice Neighborhoods
Planning Grant; Community Development Block Grant for Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages; Lead Based Paint Hazard Control
Grant Program; Lead Hazard Reduction Demonstration Grant Program.
• Department of Justice: Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation Program; COPS Hiring Program.
• Department of Labor: Face Forward-Youth; Training To Work Adult; YouthBuild.
• Small Business Administration: Clusters Initiative, HUB Zone Program; Office of Entrepreneurship Education; Office of Native
American Affairs; Program for Investment in Micro-Entrepreneurs; Women’s Business Center.
• U.S. Department of the Treasury: New Markets Tax Credit Program
Rural & Tribal Promise Zones
Proposed Eligible Lead Applicants
• Local governments - county, city, town, township, parish, village,
governmental authority or other general-purpose political subdivision of
a state or any combination thereof - and Federally-recognized tribes;
• Nonprofits applying in partnership with local or tribal government;
• Public Housing Agency applying in partnership with local government, or
Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) applying in partnership
with tribal government;
• Local Education Agencies (LEAs) applying in partnership with local or
tribal government; or
• Community colleges applying in partnership with local or tribal
government.
Rural & Tribal Promise Zones
Proposed Qualifying Criteria
The following must be present in an application:
1.
Must encompass one or more census tract(s) across a contiguous
geography.
2.
A population of no more than 200,000 residents that does not include any
incorporated municipalities or unincorporated areas with individual
populations greater than 50,000. Rural and tribal Promise Zones may fall
in metro and non-metro counties.
3.
Rate of overall poverty or extremely low income rate (whichever is
greater) of residents within the Promise Zone must be at or above 20
percent, and must contain at least one census tract with a poverty rate at
or above 32.5 percent;
4.
Local leadership must demonstrate commitment to Promise Zones effort.
Third Round Promise Zones
Tribal Application Criteria Highlights
1.
Eligible areas to include tribally owned land, tribally controlled
areas, reservations or consortia of tribal and non tribal jurisdictions
2.
Rural and tribal Promise Zones must encompass one or more
census tract(s) across a contiguous geography
3.
Population is limited to 200,000 and may not include any
incorporated municipalities or unincorporated area with individual
population greater than 50,000
4.
Rural and tribal promise zones may fall in non metro and metro
counties
Third Round Promise Zones
Proposed Selection Criteria
Section III: Selection Criteria: Need (10 points)
Section IV: Selection Criteria: Strategy (40 points)
Section IV Part A: Needs and Assessment - 10 points
Section IV Part B: Promise Zone Plan - 25 points
Section IV Part C: Promise Zone Sustainability and Financial Feasibility - 5 points
Section V: Selection Criteria: Capacity and Local Commitment (50 points)
Section V Part A: Partnership Structure and Commitment - 10 points
Section V Part B: Capacity of Lead Applicant - 10 points
Section V Part C: Capacity of Implementation Partner Organizations - 10 points
Section V Part D: Data and Evaluation Capacity - 5 points
Section V Part E: Resident Engagement - 5 points
Section V Part F: Strength and Extent of Local Government Commitment - 10 points
Third Round Promise Zones
Proposed Required Information
To be rated and ranked, applications must include all required information.
Required information helps us determine whether the application meets eligibility criteria:
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Executive Summary
Abstract
Letter(s) that demonstrates the commitment from Mayors of Chief Executives of all UGLGs.
Mapping Tool
Narrative describing the nature and scope of crime in the proposed Promise Zone, highlighting
Part I Violent Crime data.
Narrative summarizing needs and assets of the proposed Promise Zone.
To-scale city map and community level map.
Overarching narrative of the Promise Zone Plan.
Goals and Activities Template within Max Survey for each proposed goal in the Promise Zone.
Narrative outlining the budget projection for funding project coordination for the first 5 years of
designation.
Third Round Promise Zones
Proposed Required Information continued:
• Narrative description of how a Promise Zone plan would bolster efforts to secure additional funds for
partnership structure and/or specific Promise Zone goals and activities.
• Narrative describing role of residents in developing the Promise Zone Plan including engagement with
current residents and New Americans that may include immigrants and refugees.
• Narrative detailing the partnership structure including the specific roles and responsibilities of each
implementation partner organization; and the role of residents and the accountability mechanisms.
• Diagram of the partnership structure in the proposed Promise Zone.
• Preliminary Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
• Narrative describing the lead organization’s capacity to achieve Promise Zone outcomes.
• Narrative assessing the financial stability of the lead organization.
• Nonprofit lead organizations must submit their most current IRS Form 990.
• Public sector lead organizations must submit their most current OMB Circular A-133 (now 2 CFR Part 200)
audit report, including balance sheet (statement of NET Position), Statement of Activities (Income
Statement), Statement of Cash Flows, Notes to the Financial Statements, Schedule of Findings and
Questioned Costs, Report on Compliance for Each Major Federal Program, Report on Internal Controls
Over Compliance, and Schedule of Expenditures of Federal Awards.
MAX.GOV
- Applications must be submitted via Max Survey
- Access from www.hud.gov/promisezones
Mapping Tool
www.hud.gov/promisezones
Community Development Marketplace
• The Community Development Marketplace (CDM) is a database of the Second Round
Promise Zones Initiative applicant project data from 111 communities (86 urban, 18 rural,
and 7 tribal) that consented to share their goals and activities template with the public. The
CDM provides information that describes community goals, the proposed activities
expected to advance their goals, and the organizations involved in implementing and
supporting these projects.
• The purpose of the CDM is to allow communities to identify others who are working on
similar issues, to help funders and social investors find potential investment opportunities,
and assist
other stakeholders in identifying potential partners.
• The CDM can be quickly filtered by keywords to yield information on the lead applicant,
geographic locations, community goals, proposed activities, implementation partners, and
expected outcomes around a topic of interest.
• This is an opportunity to create a community of peers and to share best practices around
community revitalization efforts.
Data and Evaluation
USDA & HUD established a collaborative process for data sharing.
USDA, HUD and other federal agencies have identified key indicators and data sources linked
with Promise Zone designees’ goals.
• A list of indicators and data sources that Promise Zones can use to track their progress
towards key goals is available here.
• Federal partners also developed a strategy to access and aggregate nationally available,
neighborhood-level data and share that data with PZ designees to help with evaluation.
• Federal Partners are asking sites to help access and share local data (e.g. on crime,
education) to assist with tracking changes over time and with future evaluations of the
Initiative. (Read the Data Tracking Strategies Summary).
An additional resource that communities can use to identify local data sources is the Data
Inventory from the Place Based Data Project, a report produced for the Department of Health
and Human Services by the Urban Institute. (Read the Report).
The Data Inventory is a list of federal, state, and local sources for neighborhood-level data that
communities can use to measure a baseline, or track progress over time on community and
economic development goals related to health, education, crime, and employment.
Third Round Public Comment
USDA & HUD invite public comments on the proposed selection process, criteria, and submissions for
the third round of the Promise Zones initiative. In addition, commenters are encouraged to address any
or all of the following questions.
A.
Overarching Questions
1) Are the programs that provide preferential access for designated Promise Zones
helpful? Are there policy areas or issues that are not represented?
2) If the community is not designated, but you and your partners intend to continue
community revitalization efforts, please explain what particular types of information,
technical assistance, peer exchange, introductions or other non-competitive
assistance would be helpful to you as you move your work forward?
3) Do you find the MAX SURVEY sufficiently easy to use compared to other federal
application systems (e.g. Grants.Gov)?
4) Would you be willing to provide the type of information requested in the Goals and
Activities template for purposes of potentially connecting you to federal and private
partners/peers that could facilitate your community’s development work if it were not
part of a competition for a federal designation? See MAX Survey.
Third Round Public Comment
B. Community Development Marketplace (CDM)
5) What kind of potential user are you? USDA & HUD ha heard from foundations,
investors, communities, researchers, and national intermediaries, but there may be
others who can use this data.
6) Does the Third Round template capture information that would be useful to you?
See MAX Survey link at www.hud.gov/promisezones
7) Are there additional pieces of information that would assist you in filtering and
searching for information you would like to have?
C. Promise Zone Website
8) Is the website clear and easy to use? If not, what elements would be most helpful?
9) Is the interagency program information presented on the website well-matched to
your community’s needs? If not, what type of information would be most helpful to
add?
Third Round Public Comment
D. Community & Stakeholder Engagement
10) Do you find Promise Zone communications through emails, webinars, written
documents and other means, useful to organizations working in your community? Please
elaborate on what is useful or what could be done to make it more useful.
11) How can USDA and HUD communicate more clearly/effectively with residents and
community based organizations about the way that the Promise Zone initiative operates and
how it supports local work?
12) How can the Promise Zone Initiative better engage new Americans and immigrant
stakeholders?
E. Data Collection, Research, and Evaluation
13) How can the Promise Zone make use of the EPA Smart Location Database?
14) Does the Promise Zone framework for tracking data address the issue of burdening
designees in terms of data access and reporting? Are there other ways we could
accomplish this?
15) Is the Promise Zone table of core indicators, measures, and data sources useful for
community development outcome tracking? Are there other measures that should be
added?
Third Round Public Comment
Deadline for comments
September 28, 2015.
email Promisezones@hud.gov
Use subject line “Third Round Promise Zone Selections”
Mail:
Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
451 Seventh Street, SW,
Room 7136
Washington, DC 20410
ATTN: Third Round Promise Zone Selections
Federal Register Notice available at
www.hud.gov/promisezones
Third Round Promise Zone Initiative
Projected Timeline
Summer 2015
USDA & HUD Invite Public Comment
September 28, 2015
Public Comment Period Closes
Fall 2015
Third Round Promise Zone Competition Opens
Winter 2016
Applications Due
Spring 2016
Announcements
Third Round Promise Zone Initiative
Resources for Applicants:
www.hud.gov/promisezones
• Draft application guides
• Sign up to receive notice of future
 Webcasts
 Funding Opportunities
 Technical assistance opportunities
Email additional questions: Promisezones@hud.gov
Congressional staff, please contact Lelaine Bigelow via email at:
Lelaine.V.Bigelow@hud.gov